Cultivation of endophytic fungi
The fungi were cultured in appropriate media for the production of secondary metabolites.
Primarily cultivation was done in small scale to perform bioassays for the detection of bioactive
compounds. Both liquid and solid state fermentation was performed for the cultivation of
endophytic fungi. Potato Dextrose Agar (PDA) was mainly used to culture the endophytic fungi.
Liquid state fermentation was carried out for the production of metabolites. Medium was prepared
for the cultivation of endophytic fungi. Two or three cut up of the agar medium (0.5 x 0.5 cm) with
fungal cultures were inoculated in each 1000ml Erlenmeyer flask containing 400ml of potato
dextrose broth medium, and incubated on a rotary shaker at 150 rpm and 28˚C for 21 to 30 days.
The culture broths were filtered, and the culture media and mycelia were separated. The
mycelia were soaked in methanol. Metabolite was extracted by solvent extraction procedure using
ethyl acetate as organic solvent. Equal volume of the filtrate and ethyl acetate was taken in a
separating funnel and shaken vigorously for 10 min. The samples were extracted three times with
ethyl acetate. Ethyl acetate collected after extraction was evaporated and the resultant compound
was dried in vacuum evaporator using MgSO4 to yield the crude metabolite. After evaporation, a
brown coloured crude extract was obtained. The crude extract was then dissolved in Dimethyl
sulphoxide (DMSO) until analysis. The methanolic extract of mycelia was collected after 7 days of
36
soaking. The organic extracts were blended and concentrated in a vacuum at 35°C. Crude extracts
obtained were stored at −20°C until analysis (Choudhary et al. 2004).